Your Guide to 117th Congress House Rules Proceedings

The House Rules package for the 117th Congress has been approved and all the juicy details are in Monday’s Congressional Record. Don’t have time to comb through the 50+ dense pages? We’ve got you covered with a handy index of what’s included:

Resolution adopting the rules of the House for the 117th Congress H. Res. 8	H13
Vote to table	H18
Vote to refer to a select committee	H19
Section by section of the changes H. Res. 8 will make to the standing rules	H23
Vote on Rep. Cole amendment	H34
Vote on motion to commit to a select committee	H35
Vote on the resolution	H36
Election of Members to certain standing committees	H36
Fixing the daily hour of meeting for the first session of the 117th Congress	H37
Consent to assemble outside the seat of Government	H37
Authorizing Speaker, Majority Leader, and Minority Leader to accept resignations and make appointments	H37
Granting Members permission to extend remarks and include extraneous material in the Congressional Record	H37
Making morning-hour debate in order	H37
Appointment of Members to House office building commission	H37
Reappointment of individuals to the US-China Economic and Security Review Commission	H37
Appointment of Members to act as Speaker Pro Tempore	H38
Clerk designation of deputies with signing authority	H38
Sergeant at Arms notification of ongoing public health emergency	H38
Speaker designation of “covered period” for covid emergency	H38
Chair Announcements on 1. floor privileges 2. introduction of bills and resolutions 3. unanimous consent requests for the consideration of legislation 4. 1-minute speeches 5. recognition for special order speeches 6. decorum in debate 7. conduct of votes by electronic device 8. use of handouts on the House floor 9. use of electronic equipment on the House floor 10. Use of the Chamber 11. Conduct during a covered period	H38
Regulations for use of deposition authority	H41
Remote committee proceedings regulations	H41
Remote voting by proxy regulations	H42
Executive Communications	H43
Public Bills and Resolutions	H43

House Rules for the 117th Congress

The House of Representatives adopted a new rules package on Monday. Here is the text of H. Res 8, a section-by-section summary, a press release that highlights some of the major changes, and a decent overview of activities of the House Rules committee. We have put together a guide to rules reform proposals over the last decade, and, as you know by now, we have advocated for a number of improvements and closely followed the Member-day hearing. Roll Call’s Lindsey McPherson has a good high level summary of the contents. Please note: the House made minor changes to the draft rules, previously called H. Res 5, between Sunday and Monday.

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Forecast for January 3, 2021

THE TOP LINE

Welcome back, Congress. It’s like you never left. Did you miss us? If so, make sure you subscribe (and tell your friends.) Our back issues are here.

Tick Tock: On Friday (Jan.1), the Senate overrode the NDAA veto (even as Sen. McConnell killed the boost to COVID relief), and today the House and Senate convene for the 117th Congress. The House is expected to adopt its rules on Monday; the Georgia elections, which decide control of the Senate, are on Tuesday, as are the House’s consideration of several good government bills on suspension (including the Congressional Budget Justification Transparency Act); the House and Senate (in joint session) will count the electoral college vote on Wednesday.

So what exactly is a continuing body? The Senate considers itself a continuity body and the House does not. What this means, in part, is that the House must re-establish its rules and committees at the start of each Congress, but the Senate doesn’t. And yet, the House somehow has common-law rules that guide some of its day-one procedures and began operating today, but some Senate committees cannot operate because they are missing their chairs and have yet to reach an operating agreement (pending the results of upcoming elections). Weird.

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